"Seems he's too nutty to die, Sim. Not that I was tryin' to kill 'im. Not yet."

Kretas grunts with annoyance as he walks forward up to Twitch, mostly at the fact that the fellow seems to be rambling mad. Twitch has probably never been that stable either, if his name is any indication. Still, the team of acolytes needs to get something out of the man... or get him to someone who can. With a sigh, Kretas lets the autogun fall down and hang from its sling, and bends down to free the little madman from the crates and help him up to his feet... a grip which he put all his strength into, as he takes the opportunity to glare into the man's beady eyes.

"Right, listen up, you daft idiot. There's something out here, sure. But it's not here right now. WE are here right now, see? And we want to hear what in the name of the Emperor happened to your team. So get your act together, or we're gonna leave you here to face whatever's coming to getcha. See, you can't run or hide well like that, bleeding all over the floor, now can you? We're the only way you're gonna get to safety now. Tell us what happened, and we'll escort you somewhere safe. Don't, and well... they'll getcha."

I guess this is Intimidation? I'm gonna roll based on that, but I don't know what I have in bonuses or penalties.

I think you qualify for a +20, you did just shoot him in the leg and he’s pretty damn scared already

Sim gave Krak a shallow smile: “ ‘E was always a bit off: ‘Fortune favours the brave, an’ ‘es as pauper as they come’” She quoted: “But he had his uses, now somethin’s shot him over the deep end.”

For his part Twitch struggled in Krak’s firm grip but without the leverage of his bloodied leg he couldn’t bring anything but the most feeble resistance, his brown eyes stubbornly squirming in every direction except to meet Krak’s eyes and spotting Sim also tried to avoid her: “What happened?” He wailed, his eyes fading: “Alis! Asked for help.” He struggled, as if trying to look past Krak’s steely gaze but a note of clarity entered his voice: “The stories... we’d all heard them, missing people, monsters in the shadows.” His voice peaked in a note of panic: “Didn’t think they was true!”

He took a breath and looked imploringly at Sim, like a lost puppy: “Alis’ girl was one of em, the missing... strange we thought since she worked up high, but Alis found them!” his hand waved back down one of the corridors: “Smugglers run, up we went, found them, freed them, but they found us.” He shuddered but continued in his outpouring: “The monsters were real, they cut us off, herded us, split us... but we got away, got down again and ran, ran, ran for home, but they knew, they laughed, oh the laugh!” He wailed: “I heard them and ran, I ran and heard the roars, the shots, the screams, but still they came until... the music.” His face suddenly became serene at the thought and his voice lowered to almost a whisper: “The music, they stopped and I heard it, I followed it, it keeps me safe.”

He paused and tensed, struggling against Krak with renewed force, his voice becoming panicked again: “But still they come, they hunt, I know they do.” His voice took on an air of terror: “And the music’s gone, they’re coming!”

Opposed strength check, he rolled 30 for a single success to try and break free, do you manage to keep hold? And will anyone trust the madman enough to make an awareness check?

Krak's wiry muscles tense up and his grip is like steel... he has picked his hold well and Twitch finds no purchase with which to escape. The drill sergeant glares at the slight man.

"I told you. You're not going anywhere except for with us. No escape, except for with us," he says, and starts roughly forcing Twitch back towards the way the group had come, in the manner of a guard escorting a prisoner. "Let's get going. We've found a live witness, and with all the racket we made in doing so, it's probably a good idea to get out of here."

He turns to Sim as they walk (or, in Twitch's case, stagger) past.

"This Ales the same one as Alis? And do you know this Smuggler's run?" he asks, and even as he asks, Kretas looks around cautiously, look at the various exits of the room. If there truly are hunters still around, he'd very much like to see them before they attacked.

Castella follows Sim as she hurries after the man, but stops as Sim makes her jump over the railing and down towards the man as he scurries past rambling madly. For a moment she considers jumping as well, but she doesn’t like the prospects, especially with Sim right below her. Just as she starts down the stairs again the Sergeant's shot makes her stop again, trying to aim her luminator at their target.

The Sergeant sure knew how to handle his gun. What little Krak’s marksmanship had improved her mood quickly evaporates as Castella’s mood turns sour again as the madman tells his tale. Castella lest her luminator wander about a bit, following it with the aim of her laspistol, as Twitch’s ramblings raise some goose bumps in the back of her neck. For some reason it reassures her not one bit that she can’t notice anything out of the ordinary, as far as she could tell.

“Sergeant, he won’t bleed to death on us as we get out of here?” Castella calls down.

Awareness against Perception = 33(Roll1d100+0): 90 ... a rather spectacular failureEven with Twitch’s mad ramblings raising goose bumps in her neck Castella doesn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

Sim nodded slowly at Krak’s question, her mind still trying to take in all Twitch had said, but it was fragmented: “An’ we know how that ended.” She said bitterly, shaking her head: “Smugglers runs a story. Relics from buildin’ this place.” She gestured at the walls: “Places round the edge where people can get in, but we’re too high for that, shuttle maybe.” She shrugged: “An’ we call ‘em runs ‘cos if they exist, they can’t be easy to get to.” She knew smugglers existed, she’d met a couple, but very few and had never asked about the trade: “Never found one myself, but ‘e thinks ‘e did.”

She shifted uncomfortably at Twitch’s continued ramblings and warnings, casting a suspicious glance around the room as she glanced over at Krak: “Where we takin’ him? Can’t drag him with us the whole wa...” She trailed off as she though she saw something (Awareness 22), a shape in the flickering lights near one of the machines some 80 metres away, on the ground floor, not far below the door they entered the room from, but it was only a shadow (Willpower 83), perhaps Twitch’s ramblings were getting to her.

“Shut up.” She growled at Twitch’s continued whimpering as she shook her head and shifted her grip on her shotgun, keeping her light pointed in that direction though, just in case. Not that the illumination would help much at that distance: “Anyone found a lightswitch?” She asked, not hopefully for a response, or that if they had, not hopeful it would still work.

Keep making awareness checks, and if you succeed make a willpower +10 check to confirm what you’ve seen. Big failures like Sim’s and you can chalk it up to leaping at shadows. A narrow miss and you can be sure it’s not just your imagination, but you won’t know exactly what you’ve seen.

"Don't think so, Miss K. Gen'rally, in my experience, if he was bleedin' to death he'd have done so already," says Kretas, tightening his grip on Twitch's wrists.

"Alright, Sim, so we don't know where... yet. Where is this run, Twitch? What's the path? If you tell us true, we won't have to bring you with us," asks the sergeant as he starts leading Twitch up the stairs, still keeping an eye on their surroundings but, perhaps due to the fact his lamp pack was merely hanging from his scav outfit, seeing nothing but shadows.